The Ghostriders will play the Creston Thunder Cats in round two of the playoffs after Creston defeated the Golden Rockets in 6 games in the first round. It was a close series, the Cats won their four games by 6-2- 3-2 in OT- 3-2 and 7-1 scores. The Rockets won two games 4-3 and 5-4.
This season Creston has easily been Fernie’s biggest rival and have presented the locals with the toughest games. The Riders won five of the eight games they played against Creston but except for the first game September 17th a 6-2 Rider win and the last game February 4th an 8-2 Rider win, the games have all been one goal games. The teams split the close games 3-3 and all the games have been hard fought whoever wants it most wins games. Fernie only lost two games at home all year and Creston won one of them 2-1 back on December 3rd. Castlegar won the other game 3-1. We expect that this series will be just as close and hard fought as it was in the regular season. Creston like Fernie also has the proverbial seventh man in the stands. Both town’s crowds are animated and loud and serve their teams well.
Creston’s top scorers in their six PO games are; 20 yr. old Kane Dawe with 12 points, 17 yr. old Brandon Formosa with 11 points and 19 yr. old Scott Swiston with 7. Weston Joseph started all Creston’s PO games and was 4-2 with a 92.38 save %. Travis Ludwar was the Captain but only played the first game. We hear he has an injury. Creston is coached by Joe Martin who quite justifiably was named as the Eddie Mountain Coach of the Year.
Fernie won four straight against the undermanned Kimberley Dynamiters. It was an easy first round for the boys who won with scores of 12-3, 7-1, 9-3 and 5-1. Scott Morisseau led the way with 9 goals and 14 points, a 3.5 P/G average. Thomas Abenante had 13 points and Luke Richardson had 10 pts. Josh Garneau was the top scoring “D” man with 5pts. Eddie Mountain Top Goaltender Andrew Walton started and won all four of the Ghostriders games.
The fans were quite emotional with their comments on the local blog site during the Kimberley series but were hysterical after an almost 400PIM regular season game on February 4th vs Creston. We expect nothing less in the next week or so.
